French Dark Chocolate Pudding Recipe

I've had this blog sitting around for a while so I thought I would finally suck it up and actually make use of it. I saw this recipe a while ago for a French Chocolate Pudding in "La Patisserie est un Jeu d'Enfants" and then came across it again on www.101cookbooks.com and knew it was a sign that I had to make it. So I walked to the closest Whole Foods (secretly hoping to run into Joseph-Gordon Levitt since he is in town for SXSW), splurged on some top quality ingredients, returned to my apartment, put on some Carla Bruni and began

The recipe calls for plain fine grain sugar but I used a vanilla bean cane sugar from Whole Foods instead. I thought this added a really nice hint of vanilla without being too overpowering.


Ingredients:
2 eggs at room temperature 
6 ounces of dark chocolate chopped (I used Ghirardelli 60% cocoa)
4 tablespoons of water
4 tablespoons of sugar 
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

Cream Top:
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon of confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 

I started by separating the yolk and egg whites for both eggs (make sure you keep the yolks as you will need them later)

Next, you whip the egg whites until they begin to form peaks. This took me about 5-6 minutes

Set the egg whites aside. You're supposed to use a double-boiler for the next part but seeing as I do not own one, I simply put a bowl inside a pot full of hot water. Inside your double-boiler/bowl-inside-of-pot concoction, combine the chocolate, sugar, butter and water. Only heat it long enough until it is completely melted and evenly mixed

Next, you simply beat the egg yolks into the chocolate mixture and then fold in the egg whites and then transport this yummy chocolatey deliciousness into a jar or container to chill for a couple of hours
While it was chilling, I popped in The Godfather (maybe not the most fitting of movies but I was missing New York) and made some cream to put on top of the pudding by beating together the whipping cream, confectioners sugar and vanilla for about 5 minutes

And voila! The final product tasted as good as it looks! It had a really rich flavor but was more on par with a mousse than a pudding. Everyone in my apartment loved it - including my kitten who was feeling extra naughty today